Ripple Effect
by AlternativeRocker
Summary: A lot can be changed after a haircut and a few too many drinks. Long Robbie/Jackie oneshot in celebration of my two years of publishing on here.


**Authors Note:** Another one shot, I know, I know. I have chapters to write but I just get distracted. And I have a reason for this: it has been TWO YEARS since I first published a fic on this site and felt like celebrating with this. The past year has went really quick! This was going to be two separate fics but I decided to merge them and make a longer one :) Stupid, silly, fluffly ending; I apologise but it feels right to write like this, still.

**Disclaimer: **I still don't own the slightest parts of the characters or the show itself. Ewan and Ronan are Helen's creations (as you should already know).

* * *

It was a Thursday afternoon and Jackie was sitting up on the work units (they never used them for food or anything so no-one cared) whilst Stuart was in a chair by the table and Robbie was in front of Jackie; they weren't ignoring Stuart, it was just that they had been working together on a case that didn't involve him and Robbie needed to check some last-minute details before he attempted to write up a report. Neither of them noticed just how close to her he was or that he had put his arms at either side of her so she couldn't move away even if she wanted to.

She told him the facts he needed and he responded with a small smirk, "Thanks darling."

"It's what I'm here for," she said with a smile as she gently pushed him away when he began to turn around to get a cold drink from the fridge.

When he had finally got out from her personal space she started to talk again, "So, I'm getting my hair done after work today. Any suggestions on what I should get done to it?" She was directing the question to Stuart mainly because she didn't trust what Robbie would say and because Stuart was better with style.

The younger man answered, "Get some layers or something; just make it different than what it is." Stuart wasn't answering as much as he usually would because Ewan had been busy this week so they hadn't been able to spend much quality time togetehr and put that together with Robbie and Jackie being able to see each other all the time and not even admitting how they felt was more than a little unfair in his mind.

Robbie pitched in at that moment, "Get another colour in it, please, brunette is fun and all but really I want to see a burst of colour for once."

She looked over at him confused at the fact he was choosing to suggest quite a good idea, "What colour are you thinking, and so help me God, Robbie Ross, if you say blonde I won't be held responsible for my actions!"

"What? I think you would make quite a great blonde."

"We all know what you do with blondes though," she looked at him pointedly, making sure he knew she was talking about all the ones he had screwed over in all the years they had known each other.

"Exactly," he said teasingly which ended up with Jackie using her signature glare on him.

Jackie had agreed to pick Stuart up before work the next day so he was the first one to see her new haircut. It was red, but not too bright, if anything it was close to purple. The cut itself wasn't so different from usual, only a few extra layers put into it, but it still took some getting used to the colour change.

"Very nice," Stuart said with the utmost sincerity as he got into the car.

"Thank you."

"Although, Robbie will be heartbroken. He was really looking forward to the bleaching."

"I know, it's the ultimate sin to go against Robbie Ross' wishes, isn't it?"

"Jackie, he's had so many wishes that you've went against that I'm suprised he even has any more thoughts about you in his mind." Jackie knew he was talking about their flirting over the years and couldn't help but smirk; admittedly it was still pretty enjoyable even after all this time.

As they entered the station Jackie was growing more nervous by the second. For some reason the idea of Robbie seeing her new haircut was suddenly now terrifying. Fortunately when he saw it, he only raised his eyebrows in appreciation and grinned. Jackie spent most of the morning working on paperwork, hidden from Robbie's eye-line by the computer screens, so she had no clue just how much he was trying to look at her again.

When they finally went out to get a sandwich and coffee for their lunch together they sat down at a table in their usual cafe and he tried to ignore how much Jackie was subconsciously touching and running her hand through hair and she tried to not pay attention to Robbie's excessive flirting which seemed to be manifesting itself more so today than over the past few weeks.

"Want to go and show Ewan your new 'do after we finish up here, we can get a bit drunk since it's the end of the week, right?"

The corners of her lips quirked up in an excited smile, she hadn't been to McIntyre's in quite a while; she had seen Ewan and Stuart outside of work but had never got round to going to the club recently, "Yeah, I think I can manage a few drinks."

"Good, pick you up half six, assuming we get off work by five."

"Because you need time to get pretty, right?"

"Hey, I am already pretty, I need to get looking fitter." She shook her head in disbelief, he looked fine all the time in her opinion but she wasn't going to tell him that, it would make his ego increase more than anything else, getting a compliment from Jackie was what he had been aspiring to for years.

* * *

Just after midnight they entered Robbie's apartment, they were laughing about something that wasn't that funny and just messing around, planning on emptying Robbie's house of any alcohol he owned.

For the past four and a half hours they had been with Stuart and Ewan in the private section of the nightclub getting completely wasted on drink and generally having a good time with their closest friends.

With a bottle of red wine in hand they collapsed down onto his sofa and drank straight from the bottle, passing it to the either person after they swallowed some.

Jackie rested her head on Robbie's shoulder, giggling through her intoxication, "How did we get so drunk?" Her speech hadn't been overtly impaired but it was still evident she was beyond comprehending any proper thoughts.

"I'm sure you were the one ordering them all in." He said whilst putting one arm around her back as she changed her position so she could see his face from the front without having to look sideways.

"Liar."

He ran his hand over her shoulder and up into her hair, twirling a strand between his fingers, "I would hate to see how you would cope with being a blonde. Your red hair has made you a little looser but you are still _so_ uptight."

Her mouth dropped open as she started to argue back on him, "I am not so not uptight."

He pressed his lips together and nodded, "Oh but you are, my dear."

"Do you want a bet on that," before suddenly kissing him on the mouth, not really aware of her words or actions until they actually happened. She went to pull away but he kept her there with his hands on her hips. Soon enough their tongues started to battle with each other and they knew they had to get to somewhere more comfortable.

Jackie was wearing a low cut t-shirt with a longer button-up top over it which made it a slightly more time-consuming task for Robbie to get the access to her that he wanted, but it wasn't impossible. He unbuttoned the longer top first whilst still giving her open mouthed kisses to her mouth and then travelling down her jaw and neck. Jackie was attempting to undo the buttons on his shirt but when she felt his hands finally go underneath her top to touch bare skin she had lost all coherent thoughts. His lips went back up to hers as her hands messed up his hair and went down his back trying to pull it up a little so she could get her hands onto his flesh as well.

She felt his mouth on the section of her breasts that were available to him without having to take off her whole outfit and she couldn't keep in a deep moan. Robbie quickly covered her mouth with his, meaning she ended up finishing the noise against his lips.

As they broke off the kiss she stopped moving her hands around his bare skin and rested her head against his, "Look, Robs, I am enjoying it - obvious much - but I'm exhausted right now."

"Good cause so am I," he whispered with a smirk before pressing a kiss to her forehead. There was not even a thought that she was going to go home so they settled down on top of his bed, her back against his chest and his chin resting on top of her head, and fell sound asleep.

Jackie woke up with a pounding headache and had to squint her eyes because of the sunlight that was coming straight at her through the window. She knew her window was at the bottom of her bed in her bedroom, not the right hand side so was suddenly aware that she couldn't be in her own bed. Turning over she saw the body of the man next to her and muttered a curse under her breath.

Robbie shifted in his sleep but as Jackie tried to get out of the bedroom, and house, the bed made some loud, creaking noises which woke him up and as soon as his eyes opened he saw her sitting on the edge of his bed, looking over her shoulder at him. He had momentarily forgotten about her hair colour change so it took him a few seconds to work out she wasn't just some random bird he had pulled the night before.

"Morning Jackie."

"Morning." They sat in an uncomfortable silence for two minutes or so before Jackie needed confirmation about something, "We didn't... do... anything last night, did we?" The alcohol had been stronger than either had suspected when they had started their drinking adventure at McIntyre's.

"Well we both seem to have most of our clothes on so I would guess that we didn't go the full distance if you get my meaning."

"Robbie, I _always_ know your meaning. And I suppose you're right, I do seem to be still clothed, usually you just look at women in your flat and they strip." She tried to ignore the fact she knew the top had been fully buttoned when she had left her flat the night before, and that when she had woke up her under-shirt had been showing her bare skin up to the bottom of the black bra she was wearing.

* * *

Midway through the next week Ewan walked through the door to the house he had with his family, Stuart and Ronan, and hung up his jacket on the peg then went into the living room where the other two were. Stuart looked up at him, reading that something wasn't right with his partner,

"Ronan, I'm just going to speak to Daddy alone for a minute," Stuart kissed the girl's forehead before getting up and pulling Ewan into the kitchen, gently kissing him once the door was closed. He could feel Ewan wasn't responding as much as usual though and worried in case something bad had happened.

"Are you okay?"

Ewan ran a hand across his face, sighing deeply, "Robbie was back at McIntyre's tonight. Fourth time this week."

"What? Why is he doing this?" he suddenly realised who Robbie had originally went with, "Oh God, how did Jackie take it this time?" Out of these four times Jackie had been with him three times and Stuart could guess she wasn't too ecstatic about the whole thing.

"She's breaking up more and more every time, but she still won't admit it. If it happens once more this week I'm going to talk to him, not because of Jackie only, also because if any of the women see him again they will probably rip off his head for not calling back."

"Just be careful when you do confront him though, we all know how his temper can flare up especially after a drink. Okay?" Ewan noticed that Stuart had said 'when' instead of 'if', as though there was no other thought process in Robbie's head; everything to Robbie boiled down to a new woman in his bed when his constant had rejected him once again.

* * *

The next again night - a week since Robbie and Jackie had spent the night in his flat – Ewan was helping out on the bar since quite a few staff members had taken the night off for various reasons, when he saw Robbie sitting at the other end, chatting with some girl who was at least ten years younger than himself. He couldn't help it any longer so he went round the bar and dragged Robbie by the arm into the back room; where they had spent that night with Jackie and Stuart nights previous to this.

"Robbie, why the hell are you doing this?"

"Doing what?" He wasn't even pretending to be comfused, he truthfully had no idea what Ewan was getting at.

"Coming here every night, finding some new tart to take home, just leaving Jackie alone!" Ewan was shoving Robbie against the wall. He hardly ever resorted to being physical with customers but Jackie was Stuart's best friend and when she was upset it had a negative effect on Stuart which annoyed Ewan because he hated seeing the man he adored like that.

"She's a big girl, she can get home safely." Robbie was trying to act as though he was talking about any of his other women but deep down inside him it was killing him to not have Jackie close to him, ever since they had slept in the same bed she had been so much more withdrawn from him.

"That's not what I'm talking about and you know it. Do you love her?"

Robbie tried to push him off but Ewan was getting stronger as he got angrier. "Course, she's one of my closest friends."

"No, I mean serious love, like, _in_ love with her?"

"That's none of your business Ewan, now can you get off of me and let me back into the bar?" Ewan loosened his grip, allowing Robbie to push him hard back against the other wall and left the room. The nightclub owner picked himself up and kicked the low table in front of him over onto its side. Robbie's ego was the worst thing he had come up against since starting off with Stuart, excluding Robbie and Jackie's silent promise to not actually tell the other how they felt until it was probably far too late.

* * *

The next again morning the tension between Robbie and Stuart was obvious in the room and Jackie had no idea what was wrong. As soon as they took a break for lunch Stuart hurried out of the room as fast as he could.

As soon as they were alone in the kitchen Jackie cornered Robbie against a wall, "Okay, I give up, what is going on with you and Stuart this morning?"

"Ewan and I had a disagreement last night and I guess he told Stuart." Robbie wasn't protecting her from the truth, more himself, so she didn't have to know he had gone out for yet another night in the past week.

"What was it about?" She subconsciously licked her top lip before putting it between her teeth to prevent herself from letting all hell break loose with the anger she was feeling for Robbie at this moment.

"Nothing… something silly." She hated his secrecy about this whole thing; they were her two best friends and wouldn't even tell her the truth.

Jackie shook her head slightly, "Really, Robbie, you could at least have tried to lie just there."

"Do you want to go out later tonight?" He casually leaned back against the kitchen worktops behind him.

She ignored that she was attempting to distract her because of her sheer surprise for him actually asking her to go out again, "What?"

"Later, after work, do you want to go out somewhere with me?" He was saying it as basic as was possible but could she she was still confused.

"Where; McIntyre's again?" She hadn't meant to sound so bitter but she was really starting to get pissed off at him for dragging her along to watch him leave with some other girl.

"No, I was thinking more along the lines of a restaurant for a meal. We could still end up in Ewan's place but my plan was really just the two of us having a meal."

"Okay then - since you seem to be planning the whole thing - what will I need to wear?" He raised his eyebrows flirtatiously as she tried her hardest not to giggle.

"Well you can't wear green with your hair and red would be a bit much. Blue... nahhh. Your dark purple, strapless dress?"

"How do you know what dresses I have?" he cursed in his head before turning away form her, without letting her have an answer.

"Robbie, have you went through my wardrobe at some point?"

He couldn't look at her as he nodded, "I got bored when you were having a shower once and you told me to stay put in the living room."

"As far as I can recall my clothes aren't in my living room," she said simply whilst glaring at him then walked away, unsure of what to do with the fact he already knew every item of clothing she owned.

* * *

Robbie had asked her just before leaving work if she was still up for the meal so as she stood in front of her mirror, making some last-dictch appeals to look a bit more presentable that how she usually was with Robbie, she couldn't help but smile at how cute his whole personality could be at times, whether he was scared of whatever answer she would give or when he was just trying to impress her.

After he had arrived at her door and stared at her - the dress was a little more low cut than anything he had seen her in before - they got a taxi to a place neither had set foot in before and got seated at a table next to a darkened window.

He looked at her with a little wince and tried to smile as he attempted to appologise, "Look, Jackie, I am sorry about the whole going through your wardrobe thing, I just really wanted to know what you had been hiding away from me."

"You flirt with me like this but then you go to Ewan's club - couldn't you have at least went somewhere else to keep it more of a secret by the way? - and sleep with strangers. I don't get it Robbie."

"I've spent the entire week wondering what we might have got up to when we were drunk and I kept accidentally asking you out, and when I realised how stupid I was being - because you would _never _act like that again - I tried to get over you with all those women you watched me leave with."

"Why now then? Why not carry on screwing everyone except me to get over the night of nothing we had?" She didn't know how else to react, she wanted to tell him that she could be like that again if he chose her over all the others but deep down she knew that it probably had just been a one-night thing they had had.

"The lovers' version of Starsky and Hutch."

"Stuart and Ewan?" She smiled as he nodded in agreement, "Did they lie and tell you how desperate I was for you after you would leave?"

"Not quite, just asked me how I did actually feel about you."

"Did you still go off with some bitch?"

"Well, we got to my street corner before I told her to get lost."

Jackie shook her heard before giggling, "Sorry, I just got the words 'typical Robbie' flashing in my head."

He flashed her a grin and motioned to the desserts in front of them, "Do you want to take this back to my flat so we can have drink in private without Stuart and Ewan complaining that I'm at the club for the fifth time this week."

She had to pause to think about it. There were two options: she could refuse which would just make him go and find a girl at a club, or she could accept his offer and end up in his bed again – this time though she could foresee that she would end up without any clothes on and they hadn't even had anythign to drink this time.

Even before she thought about the first option she knew she would pick the second. Robbie had been the one person whom she had been wanting for the entire time they had known each other but they had never had the actual opportunity to do so without one of them backing out.

"Yeah. I would like that a lot." By the look in her eyes Robbie knew exactly what she was getting at and he couldn't not do that, he had wanted it for just as long.

"Good."

They hadn't even made it half-way to his flat before he had her pinned against a wall, kissing her with everything he could. She didn't even attempt to push him off her to wait until they were somewhere private, it simply felt right kissing Robbie wherever they were together.

As they broke apart for air he pressed his lips to her forehead, "I really do want to apologise for everything. I love you more than anything else and I know I can be a right prick at times but just give us a chance, please?"

She gave him a small, gentle kiss, already knowing exactly what her answer would be, "Course I will. Just don't go hunting for women whilst we're together because even though I love you, I won't regret killing you for that."

He put their foreheads together and laughed, "Deal," and put their lips back on to each other.

* * *

**The End.**


End file.
